Are You Sabotaging Your Business With Cold Market Recruiting?
As you are out there prospecting strangers, have you ever asked yourself...
Are they running away from you because they smell your commission breathe?
Do you feel like a slimy salesperson when all you want is to get their contact information and add to your "namelist"?
Are you getting NOs constantly, and feel like your self-esteem is diminishing?
You are not alone. When I first started in network marketing, I prospected EVERYONE around me, trying to initiate conversation, gather information by asking questions, and hopefully make a PITCH.
But it's just awkward!... In my mind, I was only focusing on building my business and making money.
Results? I didn't recruit anyone in 6 months. Imagine getting NOs 6 month straight. I almost quit my business seriously...
Unfortunately, the same scenario is happening to 90% of the network marketers out there because they are not taught the right mindset and skillset to prospect and recruit cold market.
And it could easily sabotage their businesses, like how it happened to me!
Fortunately I got some great advice from a 7 figure earner in the industry, and my business completely changed. How? More on that later...
Now... How Does Cold Market Recruiting Work?
Because essentially it’s connecting with strangers you meet on the street, a restaurant, at a bar, or some sort of networking event, and trying to get them interested in your business opportunity. Ring any bells? =)
The conversation has to go through certain stages that resemble what a sales person does to get somebody interested in a product or service.
This is how cold marketing prospecting and recruiting works. And make no mistake about it, it is the same as “sales”.
Recently, over the past 10 to 15 years, as the Internet has become a big part of our lives, cold marketing recruiting strategies have been applied in the digital world.
How does ONLINE prospecting and recruiting work?
Well, first thing is... you need a computer or cell phone!
Good news is almost everyone have either a laptop or smartphone nowadays.
And by prospecting online, you can actually do it at home...yeah! no more travelling hours back and forth to a networking event or meetup.
(RELATED: Want to generate 10-20 prospects, leads or customers without spending hours in networking event and taking time away from family? Learn more about this 100% Free 10-Day Online Recruiting Bootcamp)
Now where do you find people online?
Well 1st option is to target people you might have a common connection with, i.e. friends of friends on Facebook.
Yet this still carries many of the same relationship damaging risks as “real life” recruiting and prospecting.
Obviously, the first risk is that there’s always lots of rejection offline and online. And the people you are targeting, (whom you don’t know, but may know people you know), if you bother or upset them, there are reputation issues to deal with.
Another strategy is to target people in Social Media business groups or forums, because you know they are entrepreneurial, but here's a problem...
They don't know you, they haven't seen you face to face (like in a networking event), and now you send them a message wanting to connect. Weird!
Well at this point you might be thinking…
“I really don’t want to be one of those people harassing everyone they meet about business opportunities.”
And you know what?
Nobody does.
And besides, this way of networking and relationship building is arguably outdated in 2017.
Why I Completely Stopped Cold Market Prospecting & Recruiting
In 2015, I made the decision that I no longer wanted to do cold market prospecting, which actually ended up being the best thing I ever did and exploded my business & income, as a result.
I’ll share with you what I did instead to recruit and build a 6-figure networking business within 9 months of this decision, but first I want to share with you the issues I have with continuing to do cold market prospecting in the 21st century, in most cases…
When most are doing cold market recruiting, they’re always looking for an opportunity to serve yourself, and it’s very difficult to get in a mindset of actually wanting to serve others, when the intention is really self serving.
The best prospectors and builders in the world are able to flip a switch in their head to remember that the person they’re serving & helping is the person they’re trying to recruit — not themselves.
However, that’s a very difficult thing to do for a majority of netwokers.
Especially if you’re broke, hard up for cash and need results, fast!
Then you’re almost forced to approach the situation in a selfish way, because you’re hoping that person joins your business to help you out of your situation.
The switch usually doesn’t happen until many, many, many years later, when you’ve actually gotten results, because then your belief is well established.
Until then, cold market recruiting means taking from others and being opportunistic, which people notice and your desperation will come through.
You don’t want that.
Which leads us to the second problem I have…
When prospecting, every personal conversation you have with another individual, online or offline, is now about your business.
Thus, every conversation you have is not authentic.
But you always have an agenda in the back of your mind.
Now, is there anything wrong with that?
I don’t know, honestly.
It’s just NOT how I wanted to live my life.
I don’t want to have to go to a party, or my cousin’s house, or my uncle’s house, or a friend of friend’s house, and have prospecting and recruiting in the back of my mind all the time.
I did that for over a year when I was in my first network marketing business.
And I was NOT happy that year.
I was unhappy prospecting my bartender, my waitress, prospecting my friend of friends.
I was successful and I knew how to do it.
But it just wasn’t an existence I wanted to live for very long.
Which leads us to problem #3…
Obviously, in the real world, if you’re targeting friends of friends, word can “get around” about you.
You’re now “that person” nobody wants at their house party or around them, and you quickly end up in the NFL club (no friends left!), feeling alone and isolated.
That’s a bummer.
Believe it or not, in the online world, the impact is even worse, here's why...
As a Social Media Coach in the Network Marketing field, I can tell you right now that Facebook is one of the best places online to generate leads for your business.
But it’s also a hotbed of cold market recruiting right now.
And this is creating a lot of complaints.
Like I mentioned before…
People don’t like being added to groups or solicited without permission and Facebook hates that kind of behavior, too.
In fact, Facebook does NOT like people doing cold market prospecting, PERIOD.
See, a lot of network marketers will go on Facebook and start doing cold market recruiting and sending private messages.
Eventually, those private messages inevitably include links to their company URL, because they’re obviously sending that link in the hopes that people will check out their ‘deal.’
So what happens is this…
Facebook notices when these links get PM’d over and over and over again, or when they see the same links posted frequently on pages or in groups, and they keep tabs on how many complaints the link receives.
Since most people will reject cold prospecting attempts, especially online, where such behavior is often viewed as "spam", like what's often seen in emails, you will get such complaints, even if you’ve got a great website or offer.
And when this happens enough times…
Facebook will BAN your domain!
That’s right! Facebook will literally ban your domain if you are using cold prospecting techniques consistently and are essentially spamming people.
Even worse, you put your personal account at risk with Facebook by doing cold prospecting in this ineffective way.
If people complain enough about you, you will eventually have your personal account banned and shut down.
Unfortunately, this is how cold market recruiting is being taught right now, by many.
And as you can see, it leads to a lot of problems.
So what’s the solution to all this?
Well over here, my friend Ferny (8-figure earner in network marketing and internet marketing) and I have developed a strategy to not only avoid all these issues, but actually makes Facebook LOVE us.
First and foremost, though, you need to recognize that prospecting is NOT MARKETING.
Let me say that again…
Prospecting is NOT marketing!
We call our industry network marketing, but in real life, what most network marketers are being taught is NOT marketing.
It’s prospecting (i.e. sales), which is very different from marketing, which is a passive, mass-market approach.
This is important, because Facebook HATES cold prospecting.
But Facebook actually really likes marketing.
After all, they love us when we offer value, interesting content on Facebook. When's the last time you like a post that's salesy or boring? 
Over the past year, Ferny and I have been teaching network marketers a strategy through which they can generate their own new fresh red-hot leads and generate customers for their business—on auto-pilot—attracting people that are excited about the home business industry and won’t flag you as a “scammer.”
This strategy is called “Attraction Marketing”
And it’s made our websites highly respected and associated with quality content and value in the eyes of Facebook.
Thus, when someone shares our websites, it’s seen upon by Facebook as a trusted resource and your marketing message is seen by Facebook users as valuable content, and having a website is a very powerful asset when you’re marketing.
This can only happen for you when you start learning actual internet marketing and advertising strategies that Facebook actually likes — not just opportunistic cold market recruiting tactics, which most will screw up anyway.
When you master these skills, you can put out messages that people will resonate with and actually respond to, on their own accord…without you ever having to prospect or private message anybody!
That’s primarily what we’re trying to help you focused on and start taking the steps that will lead you to long-term success…
I’m happy to share online business building strategies my friend Ferny and I use today to generate 2-10 red hot prospects per day, 5-10 new customers per month and 2-3 business builders per month WITHOUT sending a single private message and only calling someone, after they’ve expressed an interest in what I offer.
Trust me, you don’t want to be known as a self-serving cold prospector by your potential leads...
and wouldn't it change your life and the way you build your business if you can be more genuine and authentic with no hidden agenda in your conversations with others?
And none of this is intended to say that traditional cold market recruiting (online or offline) doesn’t work. It certainly does and networkers prove it every day, through their grit, grind, perseverance and hard work.
I simply choose to do things differently, in a way that fits my lifestyle and my generation, with true leverage built in from the start.
And if you learn these ‘attraction marketing’ skills, trust me… people will be attracted to you and want to learn from you and will join you as a result.
So sign up for my 100% Free 10-Day Online Recruiting Bootcamp on how to build online using the Internet, by clicking right here.
I hope this offered you some perspective and things to think about.
Benjamin Pang
Network Marketing & Social Media Coach
PS. If you got questions about building your network marketing business, click here to chat with me! =)